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One of these things is not like the other…

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Os Guinness as an author and a disciple of Jesus, but he seems to fundamentally miss the point of discipleship sometimes I think. I’m going to quote from his excellent book The Call below, and you tell me if you see something that doesn’t make sense, cause I do. I’m intentionally not highlighting what I think are the inconsistencies, but I see one glaring one, and another maybe a bit less obvious. Let’s call this our mutual lesson in discipleship.

The name Moltke had resounded proudly through two centuries of Prussian and German history. Count Helmuth Carl Bernhard von Moltke had been Chancellor Bismark’s field marshal and the terrible, swift sword wielded in his crushing German victories over the Danes, the Austrians and the French. The field marshal’s greatest triumph, the destruction of the French Imperial Army at Sedan in 1871, had led to the capture of Paris and the creation of the German Empire.

So Helmuth James von Moltke, great-great nephew to the field marshal, was the scion of a famous Teuton clan and privileged to live at Kreisau, the grand Silesian estate given to his illustrious forebear by a grateful nation. But though brace and like his forebear a man of deep faith in Christ, his calling and his future lay in a very different direction.

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4 thoughts on “One of these things is not like the other…”

I think the close ally of government, and violence with a “man of deep faith in Christ” is scary. Does that “glare” at you?
I must say though, that I have met many people here who wouldn’t think it does.

Nate,
I don’t see the “less obvious, more subtle one” but if you’d care to enlighten me, that would be ok.
On a separate note, just noticed this the other day when I was checking out the top ten music videos among youth at CPYU.org.
So I ask this (follow the links):
How does this:

You might not see it because it’s not there. I’m fully aware of that possibility. 🙂 The fabulously wealthy element of the von Moltke, of earning the adoration of the nation for being a general, of poor folks working to keep up your estate because you’re powerful…that somehow that is deserved and looked up to in a supposedly “Christian” society. Do you sense that at all or am I looking too deeply and cynically?

And on the videos…uhhh, yeah, that’s just a bit disturbing. Wow. Reminds me of when Miley Cyrus was on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve last year and said the opportunity was, and I quote, “Just a God thing, ya know?”